October 30, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces receipt of applications from 75 individuals for exemptions from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. If granted, the exemptions would enable these individuals to qualify as drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce without meeting the Federal vision standard.

This amendment establishes, amends, suspends, or revokes Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and/or Weather Takeoff Minimums for operations at certain airports. These regulatory actions are needed because of the adoption of new or revised criteria, or because of changes occurring in the National Airspace System, such as the commissioning of new navigational facilities, addition of new obstacles, or changes in air traffic requirements. These changes are designed to provide safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has examined and found suitable for classification for lease and subsequent conveyance under the provisions of the Recreation and Public Purposes (R&PP) Act (43 U.S.C. 869 et seq.), as amended, approximately 5 acres of public land in Clark County, Nevada. The City of Las Vegas (City) proposes to use the land as a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Substation and related facilities.

The Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau) is conducting the Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS), formerly named the Annual Trade Survey. The Census Bureau has determined a need to collect data covering annual sales, e-commerce sales, inventories, purchases, commissions, and operating expenses for the wholesale trade sector. These data are important inputs to the Bureau of Economic Analysis's preparation of National Income and Products accounts and its annual input-output tables.

The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) is re-issuing and updating its rules for implementing open meetings, in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552b. This rule promotes public understanding of the decisionmaking processes of the IAF, while protecting the rights of individuals and the ability of the agency to carry out its responsibilities. This action is technical and procedural in nature and is intended to provide accuracy and clarity to the agency's existing regulations.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the availability of a document entitled ``Guidance for Industry: Implementation of Acceptable Full-Length Donor History Questionnaire and Accompanying Materials for Use in Screening Donors of Blood and Blood Components,'' dated October 2006. The guidance document provides blood establishments that collect blood and blood components intended for transfusion or for further manufacture with advice on reporting to FDA a manufacturing change consisting of the implementation of a standardized full-length donor history questionnaire and accompanying materials (DHQ documents). The guidance document addresses which DHQ documents are acceptable, and establishes the process for FDA to recognize other DHQ documents in the future. The guidance announced in this notice finalizes the draft guidance entitled ``Guidance for Industry: Acceptable Full-Length Donor History Questionnaire and Accompanying Materials for Use in Screening Human Donors of Blood and Blood Components'' dated April 2004.

This notice announces that the Information Collection Request for Documented Petitions for Federal Acknowledgment as an Indian Tribe will expire December 31, 2006. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we are seeking comments on this information collection before we request extension from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget.

EPA is taking direct final action approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Louisiana on May 13, 2005. This revision serves to incorporate recent changes to the Federal conformity rule into the State conformity SIP. We are approving this SIP revision in accordance with section 176 and part D of the Clean Air Act.

Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of Homeland Security proposes to add a new system of records to the Department's inventory, entitled ``the MaxHR e-Performance Management System.'' This system is an employee performance management e-tool that will standardize and automate related human resources functions that will support a portion of the Department's MaxHR program. This program will support the Department's ability to continue to attract, retain, and reward a robust and highly qualified workforce by transforming DHS human resources policies, processes, systems, streamlining business processes, and consolidating several disparate systems currently in operation. Implementation of the the MaxHR e-Performance Management System will provide greater flexibility and accountability in the way employees are paid, developed, and evaluated. Employees, through a password protected portal, can access the system to initiate each step in the performance cycle, including performance planning, quarterly reviews, and performance appraisals. Supervisors will utilize various features of the system to review employees' performance, determine completion of goals, and complete performance appraisals. Each step in the performance management cycle, as reflected in the automated system, will serve as a catalyst for increased communication between supervisor and employees to enhance performance and ensure that work is accomplished in an efficient and effective manner.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Bombardier Model CL-600-2B16 (CL-604) airplanes and Model CL-600-2B19 (Regional Jet Series 100 & 440) airplanes. These models may be referred to by their marketing designations as RJ100, RJ200, RJ440, CRJ100, CRJ200, CRJ440, and CL-65. The existing AD currently requires revising the Emergency Procedures section of the airplane flight manual (AFM) to advise the flightcrew of additional procedures to follow in the event of stabilizer trim runaway. For certain airplanes, the existing AD also requires revising the Abnormal Procedures section of the AFM to advise the flightcrew of procedures to follow in the event of MACH TRIM, STAB TRIM, and horizontal stabilizer trim malfunctions. This AD requires revising the same Emergency and Abnormal Procedures sections of the AFM to advise the flightcrew of revised/additional procedures. This AD also requires revising the Normal section of the AFM to require a review of the location of certain circuit breakers and a functional check of the stabilizer trim system. This AD also requires installing circuit breaker identification collars and provides an optional terminating action for the requirements of the AD. This AD also removes airplanes from the applicability of the existing AD. This AD results from reports of uncommanded horizontal stabilizer trim motion. We are issuing this AD to ensure that the flightcrew is advised of appropriate procedures to follow in the event of uncommanded movement or stabilizer trim runaway. Failure to follow these procedures could result in excessive uncommanded movement of the horizontal stabilizer trim actuator (HSTA) and loss of ability to use trim switches to override uncommanded movement or yoke disconnect switches to disconnect the HSTA, which could result in reduction of or loss of pitch control and consequent reduced controllability of the airplane.

This Notice advises the public of the allocations for grant funds for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster recovery grants for the purpose of assisting in the recovery in the most impacted and distressed areas related to the consequences of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. As described in the Supplementary Information section of this notice, HUD is authorized by statute to waive statutory and regulatory requirements and specify alternative requirements for this purpose, upon the request of the State grantees. This notice also describes the application and reporting waivers and the common alternative requirements for the grants made under the subject appropriations act.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is announcing its intention to request renewed authority for two collections of information: 30 CFR parts 816 and 817 relating to the permanent program performance standardssurface mining activities and underground mining activities, and 30 CFR part 850 authorizing State regulatory authorities to develop blaster certification programs. These information collection activities were previously approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and assigned clearance numbers 1029-0047 and 1029-0080, respectively.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast Region, intends to gather information necessary to prepare a comprehensive conservation plan and environmental assessment for Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge, pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and its implementing regulations. The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966, as amended by the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, requires the Service to develop a comprehensive conservation plan for each national wildlife refuge. The purpose is developing a comprehensive conservation plan is to provide refuge managers with a 15-year strategy for achieving refuge purposes and contributing toward the mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System, consistent with sound principles of fish and wildlife management, conservation, legal mandates, and Service policies. In addition to outlining broad management direction on conserving wildlife and their habitats, plans identify wildlife-dependent recreational opportunities available to the public, including opportunities for hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, wildlife photography, and environmental education and interpretation. The purpose of this notice is to achieve the following: (1) Advise other agencies and the public of our intentions, and (2) Obtain suggestions and information on the scope of issues to include in the environmental document.

Pursuant to section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, requirements of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, Public Law 95-625, and National Park Service Policy in Director's Order Number 2 (Park Planning) and Director's Order Number 12 (Conservation Planning, Environmental Impact Analysis, and Decision- making) the National Park Service (NPS) will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the General Management Plan (EIS/GMP) for Kings Mountain National Military Park (KIMO) located near Blacksburg, South Carolina. The authority for publishing this notice is contained in 40 CFR 1501.7. The statement will assess potential environmental impacts associated with various types and levels of visitor use and resources management within KIMO. The NPS is currently accepting comments from interested parties on issues, concerns, and suggestions pertinent to the management of KIMO. Suggestions and ideas for managing the cultural and natural resources and visitor experiences at KIMO are encouraged. Comments may be submitted in writing to the address listed at the end of this notice or through the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) Web site, which is linked to the park's Web site at https://www.nps.gov/ kimo. The NPS will publish periodic newsletters on the PEPC Web site to present scoping issues and preliminary management concepts to the public as they are developed. Public meetings to present draft management concepts will be conducted in the local area. Specific locations, dates, and times will be announced in local media and on the PEPC Web site. If you wish to comment, you may submit your comments by any one of several methods. You may mail comments to Superintendent, Kings Mountain National Military Park, 2625 Park Road, Blacksburg, South Carolina 20702, telephone: 864-936-7921. You may also comment via the Internet to https://parkplanning.nps.gov/parkHome.cfm?parkId=390. Please submit internet comments as a plain text file, avoiding the use of special characters and any form of encryption. If you do not receive a confirmation from the system that we have received your internet message, contact us directly at 404-562-3124, extension 685. Finally, you may hand-deliver comments to Kings Mountain National Military Park, 2625 Park Road, Blacksburg, South Carolina 20702. Our practice is to make comments, including names, home addresses, home phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of respondents, available for public review. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their names and/or home addresses, etc., but if you wish us to consider withholding this information you must state this prominently at the beginning of your comments. In addition, you must present a rationale for withholding this information. This rationale must demonstrate that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy. Unsupported assertions will not meet this burden. In the absence of exceptional, documentable circumstances, this information will be released. We will always make submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of or officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

In accord with Sec. 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the National Park Service is undertaking a conservation planning and environmental impact analysis process for updating the General Management Plan (General Management Plan) for the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, in northwestern Washington. Ross Lake National Recreation Area is administratively managed as part of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex; however, this GMP will specifically address the Ross Lake unit of the part complex. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be prepared concurrently with the GMP. The GMP is intended to set forth the basic management philosophy for this unit of the National Park System and provide the strategies for addressing issues and achieving identified management objectives for that unit. Thus, the GMP will serve as a blueprint to guide management of natural and cultural resources and visitor use during the next 15-20 years. One or more Development Concept Plans, which guide more detailed, site-specific preservation and development actions, may be included with the GMP. Consistent with NPS Planning Program Standards, the update GMP will: (1) Describe the Ross Lake National Recreation Area's (Ross Lake NRA) purpose, significance, and primary interpretive themes; (2) identify the fundamental resources and values of Ross Lake NRA, its other important resources and values, and describe the condition of these resources; (3) describe desired conditions for cultural and natural resources and visitor experiences throughout the Ross Lake NRA; (4) develop management zoning to support these desired conditions; (5) develop alternative applications of these management zones to the Ross Lake NRA's landscape (i.e., zoning alternatives); (6) address user capacity; (7) analyze potential boundary modifications; (8) ensure that management recommendations are developed in conclusion with interested stakeholders and the public and adopted by NPS after a thorough analysis of the benefits, potential environmental consequences, and economic costs of alternative courses of action; (9) develop cost estimates implementing each of the alternatives; and (10) identify and prioritize subsequent detailed studies, plans and actions that may be needed to implement the updated GMP. Scoping Process: A comprehensive scoping outreach effort is planned so as to elicit early public comment regarding issues and concerns, the nature and extent of potential environmental impacts (and as appropriate, mitigation measures), and possible alternatives that should be addressed in the preparing of the Draft EIS and proposed update to the GMP. Through the various scoping outreach activities planned, the NPS welcomes information and suggestions from the public regarding resource protection, visitor use, and land management. This notice formally initiates the public scoping comment phase for the EIS process. All written scoping comments must be postmarked not later than December 30, 2006. All comments should be addressed to: General Management Plan, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Attn: Bill Paleck, Superintendent, North Cascades National Park Service Complex, 810 State Route 20, Sedro-Woolley, WA 92884-1289. At this time, it is expected that public workshops will be hosted in towns near Ross Lake NRA, and the metropolitan area of Seattle, Washington the week of October 16, 2006, and the week of October 23, 2006. Detailed information regarding these meetings will be posted on the GMP Web site (https:// parkplanning.nps.gov/rola). All participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions and provide comments to the planning team. The GMP Web site will provide the most up-to-date information regarding the project, including project description, planning process updates, meeting notices, reports and documents, and useful links associated with the project; direct mailings will also be made periodically. Please note that our practice is to make comments, including names, home addresses, home phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of respondents, available for public review. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their names and/or home addresses, etc., but if you wish us to consider withholding this information you must state this prominently at the beginning of your comments. In addition, you must present a rationale for withholding this information. This rationale must demonstrate that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy. Unsupported assertions will not meet this burden. In the absence of exceptional, documentable circumstances, this information will be released. We will always make submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of or officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety. Supplementary Information: As noted above, Ross Lake NRA is managed as one unit of the North Cascades National Park Complex (North Cascades), which also includes North Cascades National Park (north and south units), and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (which adjoins the park on the south). North Cascades is located deep in the northernmost reaches of the Cascades Range in Washington State and borders British Columbia, Canada. Management guidance for Ross Lake NRA was included in the North Cascades GMP (now 18 years old) and has become inadequate to address the policy and operational issues now facing park management for Ross Lake NRA. Since the completion of the North Cascades GMP, many changes have occurred that affect NRA management. Seattle City Light's three dam facilities have been re-licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The mitigation package approved as part of the relicensing agreement included several large-scale changes and improvements for Ross Lake NRA that were not included or fully envisioned in the 1988 North Cascades GMP. It is timely to update the GMP to address these large scale changes that are occurring in Ross Lake NRA and to address resource protection, visitor use, and management issues surrounding these enhancements. Additionally, Ross Lake NRA also faces other broad natural and cultural resource protection issuesthese include bioregional management strategies for grizzly bear recovery, control of invasive species, local climate change effects, changing lake levels, air quality, archeology, and American Indian traditional uses. Complementary management strategies will be pursued for these resource challenges. Visitor use within Ross Lake NRA has diversified and significantly increased since the 1988 North Cascades GMP, due in part to the enhanced recreational facilities. Boating on Diablo and Ross Lakes has intensified. Use of Washington State's North Cascades Highway 20 (which bisects approximately 25 miles of Ross Lake NRA) has increased dramatically and is the most popular motorcycle touring route in the region. The GMP update is needed to adequately provide management guidance for visitor use, boats, and motor vehicles within the Ross Lake NRA and address carrying capacity for visitor experience and resource protection. Following the completion of the 1988 North Cascades GMP, the Stephen Mather Wilderness within the North Cascades National Park Complex was designated by Congress in November 1988. This act brought 93% of the park complex under the provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act, and 69% of Ross Lake NRA is designated wilderness (4% is designated potential wilderness). The new GMP is needed to adequately update zoning for the management of wilderness lands within Ross Lake NRA, and will ratify the current management contained in the Wilderness Management Plan. Trans-boundary ecosystem and recreation management is also a significant issue for Ross Lake NRA, which borders British Columbia provincial parks for five miles along its northern border. Hozomeen, at the US-Canada border, is the most developed access point onto Ross Lake. Ross Lake NRA is within a large extended watershed that begins in Canada, continues through the North Cascades and lower river valley, and then drains into the Pacific Ocean. An effort by Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEE), an endowed organization established by international treaty, is underway to manage the upper Skagit watershed more holistically between Canada and the United States. The new GMP will address trans-boundary resource management issues as well as partnership opportunities with U.S. and Canadian entities. In addition, SEE has provided funding to the province of British Columbia to complete a managment plan for its provincial park units adjacent to Ross Lake NRA and within the upper Skagit watershed. Decision Process: Following the scoping phase and consideration of public concerns and other agency comments, a Draft EIS and proposed GMP will be prepared and released for public review. Availability of the forthcoming Draft EIS for public review and written comment will be formally announced with publication of a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register, as well as through local and regional news media, direct mailings, and via Web site postings. Following due consideration of all agency and public comment, a Final EIS will be prepared; it is anticipated that the final GMP proposal will be available in September 2009. As a delegated EIS, the official responsible for the decision on the proposed GMP is the Regional Director, Pacific West Region, National Park Service. Subsequently, the official responsible for implementation of the approved GMP would be the Superintendent, North Cascades National Park Service Complex.

The FAA is amending the regulations to establish a new part to set forth qualification requirements for flight simulation training devices (FSTD). The new part consolidates and updates FSTD requirements that currently exist in different parts of the FAA's regulations and in advisory circulars. In addition, the FAA is requiring that sponsors of FSTDs have a Quality Management System. These changes are necessary to promote standardization and accountability for FSTD qualification, maintenance, and evaluation. The intended effect of the new part is to ensure that users of FSTDs receive training in devices that closely match the performance and handling characteristics of the aircraft being simulated.